Wheaton's $17 million corn pile

While much of the Midwest suffers through one of the worst droughts in decades, Traverse County farmers have had a corn harvest to remember.

The fruits of that labor, some 2.5 million bushels of corn, now will the infield of the Traverse County fairgrounds racetrack, as the corn came in faster than it could be shipped out. One pile is some 40 feet high, estimates Phil Deal, general manager of the Wheaton Dumont Co-op Elevator, which is buying -- and selling -- the corn.

The value of the four separate mounds there? A cool $17 million, Deal said.

“We’ve had grain on the ground before but nowhere this amount,” said Deal. His plan: “Slowly make our way through it,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be done by Christmas.”